Musings of a Teme
by DhampyrX2
Summary: Just the mental musings of someone that was considered the arrogant teme of a Team 7 long before Sasuke was an itch in his father's pants.


Title: Musings of a Teme

Author: DhampyrX2

Genre: Drama

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Don't sue me, I'm poor.

Summary: Just the mental musings of someone that was considered the arrogant teme of a Team 7 long before Sasuke was an itch in his father's pants.

* * *

They say that I'm dead. That Sasuke-kun killed me on his way to facing his brother. They're wrong, of course. Kabuto was waiting in the wings to carry me, or rather my consciousness, to safety from day one. I always did have to plan for such contingencies. My last battle with Sarutobi-sensei reminded me of the need to account for mishaps in any plan.

I always wondered, Sensei, if it was your plan to take my arms and my jutsu from me from the beginning? You certainly knew that would be a fate much worse than death for someone so devoted to all forms of jutsu, and especially ninjutsu, as I am. Was this your punishment for my attacking the Leaf? Or was it your statement against what I did to Minato's son? My seal against the Kyuubi certainly made jutsu almost as troublesome for the brat as they were for me after facing you, Sensei. Heh. That probably was your message. And to think that dobe Jiraiya always said I was too paranoid when we were kids. That I looked too deeply into your motives when you seemed to do something strange to me.

I could see it in your eyes, you know? That last look. You didn't see me as I was, did you? You saw that pale and gangly boy you wanted to follow in your footsteps. Do you want to know a secret? I felt as if I were that little boy again. As I leaped away, I didn't see the corpse of a faltering old man. I saw the shinobi that taught me my first ninjutsu beyond the Academy basics. The man that taught Jiraiya the basics of sealing, and started Tsunade on the path to being a medic-nin. Of course, you were always closer to me than to Jiraiya and Tsunade. I was your greatest pride and your deepest shame even at the end, wasn't I, Sarutobi-sensei?

Then again, you weren't grooming the dobe for your job, were you? He and Tsunade-hime always had a degree of freedom with you I was denied. I was the genius, the prodigy. I had the weight of your expectations to deal with. Certainly if Minato hadn't been born, I would be wearing the hat and robes of your office at this very moment. I still chuckle at the irony of that. I was to be your grand successor, your legacy where even your son failed to shine until the golden haired orphan of Jiraiya's rose into favor.

Of course, Jiraiya's soft spot for fellow orphans will be his undoing. I wonder if he knows two of the most powerful members of the group hunting Naruto-kun are his two lost brats? I told the dobe to kill them back then. He never did listen to Tsunade or me when he should have. I know sooner or later he'll face Pein and Konan. The girl won't be a problem. She may be an S-Class missing-nin, but she'll never reach the power of one of us. Even if she could I don't think she could really bring herself to kill the dobe. He was the closest thing she ever knew to a father. She was always far more sentimental than Tsunade. That's most likely why she stayed with the other brat.

I do hate you Jiraiya. You are the closest thing in this world I have to family. The last real attachment I have, and I hate you for it. You are my brother in all but blood. The fact you tried for years to bring me home after Sarutobi-sensei cast me out was as irksome as it was expected. Of course here, in the back of the mind of my most loyal servant I can admit I would probably have done the same had the roles been reversed. Not that I think you would have been exiled for peeping.

Well, not unless Tsunade-hime had been named Yondaime instead of Godaime. She was far less tolerant of you when she still had people to cling to other than you and Minato's boy.

I think the thing I hate most though, is that I know I'll be the one to clean up your mess, just like when we were kids. Pein will kill you to get to Naruto-kun. You're still good, dobe, but he destroyed a man that made us look like green Genin as we were just reaching the next level of our true power. Fifteen years ago you would have destroyed your second surrogate son. Now, you've let age and time ravage you in ways I made it a point to evade. That oversight will be your undoing. Pein will kill you.

And I will kill him.

I never understood how Sasuke could desire to kill Naruto-kun just to further his dojutsu, not that I was complaining. It would mean a better Sharingan for me, after all. But the thought of actually killing you, no matter how much we may bark at one another when we fought seems... disquieting. Probably because I know you're stubborn enough that you'd take me with you if I had tried to finish you off. If you would try to take me back to the Leaf, why not take me to meet the Shinigami? You always were dragging me places I didn't want to go. I still shiver at the memory of the brothel incident. And the bathhouse. And the massage parlor.

You really are a super-pervert, dobe.

But regardless of how much I hate you for being a tie to the world I want to rise above I will still avenge you my... friend? Brother? Inoperable tumor on my conscience? I know I'll have to race Naruto-kun to get to him first. I have little doubt the gaki will come at Pein with a determination not seen since his father's passing against the Kyuubi after news of your death reaches him. But he'll have to wait for the unlikely chance that I fail. You were family to me first. I have first crack. Tsunade will abdicate her rightful second to Naruto because of her duties to the village.

She'll hate herself for that, I'm certain. That she has to let the boy she adopted in all but name fight in her place because a village she only runs for his sake needs her. Irony is indeed bittersweet.

I wonder what the world will say after I kill Pein? Not much, I assume. They'll think I had a grudge of my own against Akatsuki that I was settling at a time when he was weak from facing you. Only Tsunade will really understand. And possibly Naruto-kun.

I hope you don't expect me to protect the gaki after I kill Pein, dobe. I won't do it. I don't care that he's the last of your legacy. Or that Kabuto has a strange kind of respect for him. One he had even before he tried to kill him, honestly. I will not stick my neck out to protect that baka Namikaze's spawn.

Hell in a few years after he absorbs the rest of the Kyuubi's power, he'll probably kill me. I can feel my time running out, you know. Too many close calls too close together. I've actually been lucky to make it this far; and as Tsunade can attest, luck runs out at the most inconvenient of times. I just pray that if someone does finally kill me it isn't that pink haired girl. My legacy deserves better than that.

Then again, as I said before, irony is bittersweet. But even the kami could not be so cruel to me. For all I've done I deserve to fall at the hands of legacy rather than Tsunade's.

Not that I intend to fall.

I think I've been waiting back here for too long. My mind is wandering to places it should never contemplate. I suppose I need some sleep. Even as a second consciousness inside my subordinate I still need rest. Or rather, there is little else to do but rest and think, and I don't like where my thoughts are going right now. I hope the dobe doesn't get himself killed too soon. I don't like planning for things that endanger me and don't serve to improve my situation.

Baka dobe.

Enough of this. Time for rest. Who knows what exactly the morning will bring for me? Rest well in the belly of the beast Sensei. And watch your back, dobe. I have no desire to be seeing the two of you anytime soon.

FIN


End file.
